"Come out," Lin Jie called softly toward the remains of the two Dragon Kings.
"One breath, two breaths… three…"
Ten breaths passed in silence. Nothing stirred in the space.
"Strange... have their souls truly dissipated? Or perhaps they haven't regained sentience yet?" Lin Jie muttered, frowning slightly.
"Then again, the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings weren't said to awaken until millennia later. Their divine consciousness may have long since faded. Even if they someday reform their minds, it seems they're still dormant for now."
He stepped forward and halted before the massive skeletal remains, gazing up at the once-majestic bones of the two divine beasts. A sigh rose from his chest.
"No matter how powerful you were in life, before the river of time, you're but dust..."
But just as he was caught in reflection, his gaze darted toward the Spirit Bones nestled within the remains—relics of god-beasts. Lin Jie stretched out a hand to touch one, only for a sudden flash of red light to repel him. It wasn't particularly strong, just... instinctive.
The sudden burst startled him enough to instantly activate his defensive mode.
Moments later, calm returned. The red light dimmed and vanished.
Lin Jie cautiously approached again. This time, he saw it—within the Fire Dragon King's remains, a faint red glow pulsed from the Spirit Bone. He glanced toward the Ice Dragon King's remains and saw the same—a faint, flickering blue.
"Could these be the remnants of their divine souls... still cultivating in slumber?" he wondered aloud. "They're likely unconscious, but still intact."
Realizing this, Lin Jie grew bolder. He reached toward the glowing red once more—again, it repelled him. The resistance was weak, almost purely reflexive.
His mind turned darkly curious.
If I absorb these two soul remnants… will I gain traces of divinity within my own spirit? Would that bring me closer to godhood in the future?
A grin crept across his face.
Sentiment was not his style. Mercy wasn't in his nature.
Without hesitation, Lin Jie seized both spiritual remnants. At first, the dragon souls resisted fiercely—but the moment they touched his own spirit, they strangely calmed down, as though sensing a familiar resonance.
As the dragon souls entered his body, the blue and red energies intertwined and surged toward Lin Jie's core. Upon contact with his spirit, the three forces clashed violently. Pain twisted his features as he endured the searing assault on his very soul.
Though the Dragon Kings had once been divine beasts with true godhood, eons of slumber had stripped them of strength. Compared to Lin Jie's reincarnated spirit—fortified by two lifetimes—their resistance was negligible.
Slowly, their remnants were absorbed and fused into Lin Jie's soul, enhancing his spiritual force and leaving behind a faint trace of divine essence.
Within Lin Jie's spiritual sea—once purely electric—new sensations emerged. Cold and heat. Ice and flame. Their lingering godly power reshaped the space.
When the last wisp of dragon soul was fully integrated, Lin Jie stood up and closed his eyes, feeling the new elements that now dwelled within him.
With a smirk, he extended both hands. As Spirit Power surged through him, the two new auras surged up as well.
From his left hand erupted searing flame; from his right, bitter cold.
Seeing the elements manifest, Lin Jie burst into laughter.
"Hahaha! Three Martial Souls—three elemental Martial Souls! Has this ever happened in all of Douluo Continent? I must be the first in history!"
After laughing himself breathless, Lin Jie calmed down, cycling the Ice and Fire Martial Souls repeatedly. They didn't vanish. This was real. He had truly become the first Spirit Master with Lightning, Ice, and Fire Martial Souls.
Still, he pondered the cause. The answer was obvious: the divine souls of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings had left behind not only godly essence, but elemental imprints. Somehow, these imprints had awakened the Ice and Fire Martial Souls within him.
He didn't know the precise principle—and didn't care.
Shaking off his musings, he turned back to the Spirit Bones resting near the corpses. If the Dragon Kings were divine beasts in life, their bones had to be god-tier. And now, they were his to claim.
Lin Jie reached for the Ice Dragon King's Spirit Bone—when suddenly, radiant light flooded the space. Both Spirit Bones—Ice and Fire—rose into the air, glowing with resplendent brilliance.
Caught off guard, Lin Jie's vision was overwhelmed. He couldn't see a thing.
A moment later, both Spirit Bones shot toward him. In a flash of rainbow-colored light, they pierced directly into his palms.
Lin Jie instinctively flailed, trying to shake them off, but it was no use. They had already fused into his body.
When the light finally faded, he blinked in shock, staring at his hands.
The cave was quiet once more—but Lin Jie didn't wait to see what might happen next. Without hesitation, he bolted from the strange chamber.
As he vanished from sight, deep in the darkness, the two skeletal heads of the Dragon Kings stirred.
A faint gleam flickered in the depths of their hollow eye sockets—watching Lin Jie's retreating form.
—
By the time Lin Jie surfaced from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the spiritual herb garden looked barren. The lush array of immortal herbs was now reduced to barely a tenth of what it had been.
Looking back at the steaming spring, he muttered, "Not sure how much longer you'll last. But I've taken what I needed. I'm done here."
He erased all traces of his presence and quickly left the area. If he wasn't careful, Dugu Bo might be able to track him down.
For three days, Lin Jie traveled deep into the Sunset Forest, moving in the opposite direction from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. He didn't stop until he was certain he was completely off Dugu Bo's trail.
He had no intention of returning to Heaven Dou City yet. First, he needed time to study the two new elemental Martial Souls—and those two mysterious Spirit Bones now embedded in his hands.
—
Deep in a mountain cave, Lin Jie had been resting for three days. The cave had once been home to a ten-thousand-year Earthquake Bear—but Lin Jie had wanted it, so the bear had become dinner. The braised bear paw had been surprisingly tasty.
Now, seated cross-legged on the smooth stone floor, he focused inward.
To his left, the cave wall glowed crimson from fire.
To his right, it shimmered pale with frost, ice spreading across the stone.
And he was barely using any power.
If this was what a slight activation could do... he could only imagine what would happen if he went all out.
These past days had given Lin Jie clarity.
His Ice and Fire Martial Souls were born from the remnants of the Dragon Kings, awakened during the soul absorption. Both were extremely potent—Extreme Ice and Extreme Fire.
Compared to that so-called Clear Sky Hammer, these were on a whole different level.
Even without any Spirit Rings attached yet, their innate power shocked him. A simple activation of the Ice Martial Soul was enough to frost over the walls of the entire cave.
He itched to test them more—but there weren't any suitable ice-type Spirit Beasts nearby.
If he wanted to add Spirit Rings to his new Martial Souls, he'd have to head to the Extreme North.
That would be a journey for another time.